The incredible town where its 200 residents live and work in the same building

Tucked between picturesque mountains on the west side of Prince William Sound lies the extraordinary Alaskan village of Whittier, where the vast majority of its residents live in a former 14-story army barracks, resembling an aged hotel.

Begich Towers lies on the edge of town and was described in the California Sunday Magazine as feeling like “the halls of high school”.

Completed in 1957, the building contains 150 two-and-three bedroom apartments. It was designed to host the headquarters of the US Army Corps of Engineers

"There were bulletin boards along the hallway entrance," said Erin Sheehy. "It's concrete blocks that look like cinder block, and they were all painted pale yellow."

The town is located at the head of the Passage Canal and is the only settlement in the area. The population was 272 at the time of the 2020 census. According to the US Census Bureau, of the total area of 19.7 square miles, 7.2 square miles - or more than 36 percent - is water.

Originally named the Hodge Building, it was renamed to Begich Towers Condominium in 1972 in memory of Nick Begich, an Alaskan Congressman who disappeared in the area and is presumed to have died in a plane crash.

Upon walking in, one finds the post office near the entrance, and the police station just down the hall. The station does not have space to hold or interrogate people.

Whitier is certainly not the easiest village to visit. One can either get there by sea, or take a long tunnel, a mixed-use road and rail tunnel, the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel, which at any given time only runs one way.

"It's still a fairly inaccessible town," said Reed Young. "Plus, at night, they close the tunnel completely."

The weather in the village played a big factor in the reason why the residents have everything they need under one roof. In the winter, Whittier can be hit by brutal 60mph winds.

Its annual average temperature is just 5.1C, with the hottest month being July at 14C. In January, temperatures average at -2.1C. In December 1942, however, Whittier hit a record low of -34C.

The amenities on offer include: a laundromat, a small market, a convenience store, a small health clinic to handle minor ailments, a bed and breakfast on the building’s top two floors and even a church in the basement.

There is also a school directly behind the tower, connected by an underground tunnel so that students could safely access school during bad weather. There is also an indoor playground. According to the 2019-2020 enrollment numbers, it serves around 48 students from preschool to high school ages.

In 2015, a teacher, Erika Thompson, who lived in Begich Towers said that life was normal, despite how the outside world perceives the village.

“For me it's just home," she says. "For the most part, you know everybody. It's a community under one roof. We have everything we need."

The town’s other main structure, the Buckner Building, was completed in 1953 and was called the “city under one roof”. It was, however, eventually abandoned. At one time, the two buildings were the largest in Alaska.

The buildings were part of a larger project which meant to include the construction of ten other similar buildings for military use, but only these two were built and were used by the US Army until the early 1960s. The two-story private residence, Whittier Manor, houses most of the rest of the town’s population.

The town is also popular with tourists, photographers, hikers and sport fishermen because of the abundance of wildlife and natural beauty, besides the town’s unusual look. There is a harbour and deep-water port which is used by cruise ships. Whittier was the embarkation/ disembarkation point for one-way cruises from Anchorage to Vancouver by Princess Tours in 2016.